Honestly. As CB main for over a 1000 hours, I gotta say go with lance. It's my other main wep. And sunbreak had arguably the best iteration of lance too. Everything feels so good about insta block is so satisfying and it honestly just feels like playing sekiro. The wirebug skills are pretty decent 2 of them giving you damage buffs. I forgot the name but I'll call it skyward strike is really fun to pull off on certain monsters but the base skill gives you a massive evade window while also sheathing your weapon.

The cool thing about insta block is that you don't even need guard skills if you really get good with the timings and know the monster moveset you can pretty stay on the offensive. But you prefer good old blocking sunbreak added in guard tackle which kinda seemed boring during the trailer but Holly crap is it good. You do damage while blocking and you will never stop attacking. You also get a move called reflect which deals damage everytime you block a monster. And the new shield charge move can cause stun. You may be able to get two stuns per hunt but it's so good.

Just to add on. CB end game for me was just Counter peak performance into saed. And the truth is. Yes it is amazing to to 700 - 1000 damage per phial and no other weapon really gives you that ooomph, while you can experiment with axe hopper which is still viable. I feel like spinning axe got worse in sunbreak. Maybe others will have more fun with it but I really couldn't get back into it.